As is often the case with electric appliances such as printers, a new version application program may be read out from an external storage and stored in an internal storage thereof. In such a case, for instance, a previous version application program is removed from its original storage area and saved at other area so that its new version stored in an external storage is uploaded in the vacant area where the removed previous version was stored. Thereafter, in case a successful upload is completed, the previous version is deleted whereas in case the upload is not completed successfully, the previous version is returned to its original storage area (i.e., overwrite save of the new version).
Meanwhile, in a printer connected to an external storage, when each step which is updating of firmware, addition of template data, transfer of printing-data or the like is carried out by using data stored in the external storage, for example, manual operations are performed by an operation procedure of flowchart shown in FIG. 10.
More specifically, according to the flowchart of FIG. 10, a step of connecting an external storage to a printer is carried out (S101) at first. When the printer detects the connection with the external storage, a step of analyzing data stored in the external storage is carried out inside the printer (S102). In case data stored in the external storage currently connected to the printer includes firmware data (S103: YES), a step of updating the firmware (S104) is carried out along user's manual operations on the printer. In case the data in the external storage is not firmware data (S103: NO) but template data (S105: YES), a step of transferring the template data (S106) is carried out along user's manual operations on the printer. In case the data stored in the external storage is not template data (S105: NO) but printing data (S107: YES), a step of printing out the printing data (S108) is carried out along user's manual operations on the printer. In case the data stored in the external storage is not printing data (S107: NO), the printer terminates the steps of using data stored in the external storage.
In this connection, even if a display unit is employed, if the display unit is capable of indicating quite limited amount of information at a time, such a conventional printer is very inconvenient for manual operations for users. That is, when an external storage is connected to the above such printer and data stored in the external storage connected to the printer is used, the printer needs to indicate guidance of complicated manual operation procedure in the display unit that is capable of indicating limited amount of information at a time. Even if the printer employs an operation device thereto, if executable operations with the employed operation device are limited to simple ones, it is very difficult for a user to perform complicated manual operations in steps using data stored in an external storage connected to the printer.